Laura Rose is facing a felony charge of criminal mischief for defacing a store in Cottage Grove, Oregon.
Photograph: Jason Wilson for The Guardian

Laura Rose might go to prison for an anti-fascist act of rebellion which has exacerbated a deep debate in a small Oregon town, but they say it wasn’t premeditated.

“I didn’t make a plan. I missed the bus,” Rose says, raising their eyebrows under a battered cowboy hat.

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They – Rose is genderqueer – live an itinerant lifestyle, traveling around the US Pacific north-west. They had been staying in the small town of Cottage Grove, Oregon, (population 10,000) when they had heard about a violent neo-Nazi by the name of Jake Laskey who had been using a store, Wolfclan Armory, as a base of operations for reviving the American Front, one of the oldest white supremacist gangs in the country.

Laskey had a track record that included being sent to prison for attacking synagogues and threatening witnesses, and had published videos in which he made veiled threats against anti-fascists and journalists.

In Cottage Grove, public meetings had been organized by anxious residents. Leaflets and posters had distributed, and street protests outside the store had been organized.

Nothing had seemed to work, and Wolfclan Armory was open and trading on Main Street. Rose knew that although anti-fascists had successfully shut down openly fascist street marches in liberal cities on the east coast, things were different in rural America.

One day in June, as Rose walked back into town from the bus stop, they “realized I couldn’t just walk past it again. I looked across the street and there were these American flags – 7ft long metal poles set out in sidewalk sconces in the lead-up to the 4th of July. They weren’t locked down or anything.”

Rose has been an environmental activist, but has not participated in mass anti-fascist actions like the ones that have taken place in Portland over the last year. But that day, they grasped the opportunity for a “symbolic act”.

“I was like, I am gonna smash in these windows with an American flagpole, in broad daylight, and then I am going to go and sit down over there and I am going to deal with the consequences.”

Before they acted, in a nearby pub, Rose drank a glass of mead, ate some hot soup and “waited for my hands to stop shaking”.

“I walked down the street, and pulled the flag pole out of the ground. Then I walked back across the street and bashed the windows in. Some of them were reinforced plexiglass, like bulletproof stuff. So I couldn’t break them, but I broke all the glass ones. Then I threw the big American flag through the window into the shop,” Rose says.

“Then I walked back across the street. There was a public bench right there. I sat down and I waited for the cops,” Rose says.

The Wolfclan shop on Main Street, Cottage Grove. Photograph: Jason Wilson/Jason Wilson for The Guardian

Within minutes, Cottage Grove police took them into custody. Rose is now facing a felony charge of criminal mischief, which carries a possible prison term.

Rose says they “don’t advocate violence at all. I think of what I did as a forceful intervention, in which no living being was threatened. I wanted people to pay attention, to investigate these people, to find out what is unseen: ‘Look here: this is evil at work in the world.’”

Progressive organizers and more radical groups have disagreed about the best way to respond when faced with white supremacists, and Rose’s actions has dramatized that argument and raised a question: how far should a community go in fighting the far right?

In the towns nestled in Oregon’s south Willamette Valley, neo-Nazis and assorted other far-right actors have been operating in the open throughout the Trump era – hate crimes in the area have doubled in the year following the 2016 election.

The Guardian spoke to many people in Cottage Grove who were fearful of the Laskeys’ presence, and the possibility of attracting white supremacists to the town. So fearful, in fact, that few were willing to go on record.

When Wolfclan Armory registered the business with Oregon’s secretary of state in 2016, they announced their intention to sell “KNIVES, SWORDS, TACTICLE [sic] AND SURVIVOR GEAR ETC”.

Many of the knives are handcrafted by one of the Laskey boys, Gabriel. But it is their older son, Jake, who occasionally used them to commit violence. In January 2018, he illegally carried one and went on to assault his former comrade in Oregon’s white supremacist movement, Devin Wolfe, stabbing him in the hand.

When he was arrested, photos taken there show him with a buzzcut, inked from his fingertips to his chin with white power tattoos, and wearing a T-shirt advertising the neo-Nazi group he had hoped to revive. When a deputy asked where he got the knife. Laskey replied: “What do you mean? I sell them.”

We are trying to navigate the impulse to do whatever it takes to keep ourselves safe

Jake had also taken charge of Wolfclan’s social media accounts to spread his poisonous ideology and threaten those who challenged him. On YouTube and Bitchute, Laskey issued a rambling and at times menacing series of videos, in which he described himself as an “anti-antifa supremacist”.

Mostly they are filmed at Wolfclan’s premises, and some of them feature Jake’s brothers. Often, Jake would pose against the wall of knives. In one, challenging anti-fascists to confront him face to face, Jake Laskey says: “You guys wonder why I handle knives? Come and find out. You guys say I have a very violent history and I must be stopped. Well, stop me then. Stop me then, Antifa.”

All indications were that until he went back to prison in September for stabbing Wolfe, Jake intended to continue this track record of violence.

Since its formation in 1983, members of the American Front have been responsible for racist beatings, bombings, and attempted murders.

In 2012, 10 members of the group were arrested in Florida, where they had been doing paramilitary training ahead of a projected “race war”. (The anti-fascist group Rural Organizing Project, based in Cottage Grove, published a report on the group, warning of its reach.)

In 2010, in Norfolk Virginia, Christopher Brooks placed antisemitic stickers on the exterior of a synagogue and got five years for “injury to a church”. Closer to Cottage Grove, Christopher Lord received a 54-month sentence on various charges related to his 1994 drive-by shooting on the Temple Beth Israel synagogue in Eugene.

In 2002, Jake Laskey would attack the same synagogue in the company of his brother, Gabriel. At that time, they were members of another white power gang, Volksfront. (Photographs obtained by the Guardian show him with other members of that group throwing fascist salutes and posing with weapons.)

On 25 October of that year, Jake, his brother Gabriel and two other men threw swastika-engraved rocks at Temple Beth Israel in Eugene, in the middle of a Friday service. While awaiting trial for the 2002 attack, Jake doubled down on the violence. County jail surveillance caught him threatening to kill witnesses, including the woman who he would later marry when he got out of jail, Amanda Laskey.

In court documents from his trial, prosecutors said that a police search of Laskey’s car found more knives, these ones “designed in the manner of Aryan or German weaponry”. They also said Laskey was involved in “efforts to indoctrinate youth” at a local high school.

For the synagogue attack and the threats, Jake was sentenced to 11 years in a federal prison. Between 2007 and 2015, he served eight.

Rabbi Ruhi Sophia Motzkin Rubenstein, who leads Temple Beth Israel in Eugene, which Jake Laskey attacked in 2015, says that recent far right activity in the area in the last two years has brought about “a level of anxiety. I think we are trying to navigate the impulse to do whatever it takes to keep ourselves safe, and the moral courage it takes to stand in solidarity with other targeted groups.”

When Jake got out of prison, he started promoting the American Front aggressively. A Facebook photo republished by an anti-fascist group shows Jake at Wolfclan with Steve Shallenberger, a far-right skinhead who beat a black man in Portland while yelling “KKK” in 1992.

Jake was also using the American Front’s social media account to promote national far right gatherings, like the Hammerskin music festival in Boise, Idaho in September 2017. During his period outside prison, he was pictured with Hammerskins members, all wearing the American Front T-shirts.

Meanwhile, throughout 2017 and 2018, in surrounding towns and cities, neo-Nazis were becoming bolder and more confident.

Counter protesters at the Unite the Right 2 rally in Washington DC in August. Photograph: Zach Gibson/AFP/Getty Images

In this atmosphere, Wolfclan’s move to Cottage Grove from the nearby town of Creswell earlier this year had caused a wave of public consternation, even before the store opened.

Residents expressed their anger and concern at public meetings, and some took matters into their own hands. In March, one woman, Venice Mason, staged a picket outside the store. She claimed that the Laskeys shared their son Jake’s beliefs, and supported his activities.

In response, Jake’s mother Jeanette Laskey issued the first of many denials that they were white supremacists. She told the Cottage Grove Sentinel: “We’re Christians.” She told KEZI, a local TV station, that “it seems like our son can’t live down his past, even though he’s tried to”.

She denied there was any fascist symbolism in the store’s name or logo, saying that it was named after another son, Elias, who committed suicide in 2000. “My son was a lone wolf … that’s why we’re the Wolfclan,” she told KEZI. (Attempts by the Guardian for comment from Jeanette and Allen Laskey through their son, Gabriel, were unsuccessful).

Following this, community groups worked – sometimes at cross purposes – to put pressure on the landlords, city authorities, anyone who could stop the store moving to town.

The national context hung over local activism. While Donald Trump had famously argued that there “some very fine people” among the white supremacists who marched on Charlottesville in 2017, he, conservative media, and groups like the NRA had relentlessly demonized any radical responses to such groups.

I think there is a lot of passivity in modern America. People don’t think for themselves

Inevitably, this rubbed off on the opinions of conservative residents of towns like Cottage Grove. Some worried about a backlash to actions that pressed too hard on the Laskeys.

While they had deep disagreements over tactics, all of those opposing the Laskeys’ presence in Cottage Grove agreed that, at the very least, the elder Laskeys had effectively condoned Jake’s organizing by allowing him to do it with the business’s accounts. Some suspected he had their blessing, pointing to the decades in which Jake’s (and earlier, Gabriel’s) far-right organizing had happened under their noses.

Cottage Grove’s local progressive activists tried to enlist support from local businesses and community leaders, while more radical anti-fascist groups urged a more confrontational approach.

A progressive coalition, Cottage Grove Community United, printed posters, held community meetings, enlisted faith groups, and generally tried to mobilize the community to oppose the store. They also tried to lobby city authorities to prevent the store opening. A statement from the group to the Guardian says that “a lot of people were concerned to see a business with strong links to white supremacy move onto Main Street. The goal of our group however, is to fight against racism and other hate however it shows its face in Cottage Grove.”

They explain that their approach has been resolutely peaceful: “Our focus to date has been on reaching out to businesses and community members, as well as educating ourselves and others about white supremacy.”

But legal and peaceful means have thus far been met with the reluctance of city authorities to get involved. Though Cottage Grove has a strong, progressive element, many residents and city leaders are conservative-leaning, or inclined to leave the Laskeys be.

Cottage Grove’s mayor, Jeff Gowing, said in a telephone interview that “we uphold the constitution. The Oregon constitution doesn’t allow us to dictate what businesses come into town.”

His comments were in line with warnings emailed to city councillors by city manager, Richard Meyers, in March. Meyers wrote “the city has no authority to approve or disapprove the use of property by Wolfclan Armory” and told councillors to take care with their public statements lest they “put the city into a liability situation”.

Cottage Grove Community United distanced themselves from Rose immediately after their action at Wolfclan.

The next day, they posted on their Facebook page that the group “does not condone violence of any sort and we are dismayed by the events of 6/11/2018 at Wolfclan Armory. Our goal is to promote peaceful actions of positive community involvement that build understanding, trust and open communication.”

Eugene Antifa, who do anti-fascist organising in nearby Eugene, were more supportive. In an email, a spokesperson repeated the allegation that they have consistently made: “The Laskey family has a long history of being active in and funding white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. The tolerant left of Cottage Grove has been unsuccessful in removing this hive from their community.

“While other organizations have denounced Laura Rose’s actions, we support a variety of tactics including property damage and certainly support Laura Rose’s actions.”

These different responses reflect persistent philosophical and political disagreements over appropriate responses to fascism in liberal and leftist politics.

While anti-fascist groups see property damage or violence as a sometimes necessary response to the inherent violence of fascism, other groups urge non-violent responses. On its website, the Southern Povery Law Center says: “SPLC condemns violence in all its forms, including the violent acts of far-left street movements like antifa.”

Jake Laskey is back in prison for stabbing Wolfe, but his plea deal means that it’s set to be a much shorter stay. With time served, and good behaviour, he could be back out again in January 2020.

Inside Wolfclan, on a sunny afternoon in late September, Gabriel Laskey, Jake’s brother, was working at the counter. He would not comment directly on Jake’s case or Laura Rose’s. Asked if Jake used a knife from Wolfclan to attack Wolfe, Laskey said: “I have no idea.” Asked if Jake was still involved in white supremacy while he was out, he said: “I never got involved in his business.”

When asked what he would say to those who don’t believe that the Laskey’s have no knowledge of Jake’s activities, he replied: “I probably wouldn’t say a whole lot to them. I don’t try to convince people. People have all kinds of crazy ideas.”

He denied any ongoing connection himself with white supremacy. “I don’t do nothing no more. I haven’t been involved in white supremacy since I was 20.” (Laskey was 20 when he participated in the synagogue attack).

He says that Wolfclan’s social media still featured Jake’s posts because he and the rest of the family don’t know how to use Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube so well. “I wouldn’t know how to pull all of it down to be honest. I am not tech savvy.”

Now, he claims: “I pretty much just work and do my own thing. I’m kind of a hermit.”

Will Jake work here when he gets out?

Gabriel hesitates. “Probably not.”

He then dropped his eyes back to the place behind the counter, where he went on sharpening one of his knives.